Anti-sifting belt fastener assembly

Abstract

An anti-sifting arrangement for plate and wire-type belt fasteners with hinge loops. A block of flexible material, such as an open-cell reticulated foam, is disposed in the hinge loop area and spans adjacent belt fasteners. A hinge pin inserted into the meshed hinge loops compresses the foam block which also expands to fill the voids between the belt ends, hinge loops and hinge pin to prevent sifting of particulate matter through the splice. The foam block is retained in position by the belt stops or the end of the belt and may be readily inserted or removed from the belt fastener assembly.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A belt fastener assembly for fastening to a conveyor belt end and for reducing sifting of materials through the fastener assembly, said assembly comprising: a plurality of belt fasteners having upper and lower arms disposed in an open position with the arms disposed angularly relative to one another to define a belt receiving gap therebetween,   connecting means joining adjacent belt fasteners together in aligned positions adjacent each other,   a hinge loop on each fastener joining the upper and lower arms and being aligned by the connecting means to define a hinge pin receiving trough,   an elongated body of soft, flexible, compressible resilient material spanning adjacent loops of the belt fasteners to reduce sifting of materials,   said arms having a plurality of belt stops, said belt stops being on an arm and projecting toward the other of said arms to limit the insertion of the belt end into the gap between the arms, and said belt stops retaining said resilient body in place to reduce sifting,   free ends on the belt stops spaced from the opposing other arms to define a slot,   an elongated body of soft, flexible, compressible foamed material spanning adjacent loops of the belt fasteners,   said body being confined between inner portions of the arms and the belt stops and the loops prior to clinching the belt fasteners to the belt end preparatory to connecting the two ends of the belt together,   said arms in the open position extending beyond a parallel relationship such that a subsequent bending of the arms into parallel relationship against opposite sides of the belt squeeze the resilient body about the inner sides of the upper and lower arms and projects the resilient body into the space between adjacent arms, an inner side of the resilient body extending into the loops sufficiently that it must be displace outwardly toward the belt stops before a hinge pin is inserted into the loops, said resilient body having an uncompressed height greater than the dimension of said slot, said resilient body being compressible to be pushed through the slot into the hinge loops with manual pressure,   each of said resilient bodies being compressed by the hinge loops of the other set of belt fasteners to change substantially the size and shape of the resilient bodies and to provide an opening for the hinge pin,   said bodies being expandable and compressible with the hinge loops as the loops define different sizes of opening for different sizes of hinge pins to reduce sifting with different sizes of hinge pins.   
     
     
       2. belt fastener assembly in accordance with claim 1 in which said body is an open cell, urethane foam block.